Saudi Arabia Won't Allow Use Of Bases

Kingdom Also Won't Permit U.s. Planes' Flyover Rights

November 04, 2002|By ESTHER SCHRADER Special to the Daily Press

WASHINGTON — Saudi Arabia will not permit bases on its soil to be used in an attack against Iraq, its northern neighbor, and will not grant flyover rights to U.S. military planes even if the United Nations sanctions an invasion, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al Faisal said Sunday.

The remarks by the prince on CNN were the strongest Saudi rejection to date of any assistance to a possible U.S. attack on Iraq. Although the Pentagon says the United States is able to launch such an attack without Saudi assistance, military officials agree doing so would constrain the strategic options open to war planners.

More than 5,000 U.S. troops are based in Saudi Arabia, and the country is bristling with U.S. military equipment and weaponry. Nearly 12 years ago, an American base near Riyadh, the Saudi capital, was a launch pad for the U.S.-led Persian Gulf War, which drove Iraqi troops out of Kuwait after a seven-month occupation.

The same base played a critical role in last year's campaign to drive the Taliban from power in Afghanistan. There, Air Force commanders orchestrated many of the airstrikes against the Taliban and al-Qaida, while vast teams of U.S. military computer specialists and other experts also made Riyadh their home.

"We can live without Saudi bases, but it obviously makes it tougher," one military official said Sunday. "If they don't at least give us flyover rights, it's going to be a lot more complex moving supplies and people over there."

Asked if Saud's comments marked a serious military setback to any U.S.-led effort against Iraq, Mary Matalin, counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney, said on CNN's "Late Edition" that other allies in the region would fill the gap if necessary.

"We have many friends and allies in the region, and we have many friends and allies around the world," Matalin said. "We would never engage unless we were sure that we could get the job done well."

Saudi officials have gone back and forth for months on the issue of basing rights for U.S. forces in the event of an invasion of Iraq -- most recently saying the United States could use the bases if the attack was sanctioned by the United Nations -- and they had left the window open on allowing U.S. combat, reconnaissance or refueling planes to land on Saudi soil.

Sunday, however, Saud appeared to take Saudi opposition further.

"We will cooperate with the Security Council, but as to entering the conflict or using the facilities as part of the conflict, that is something else," Saud said when asked about allowing overflights by U.S. forces.

"Our policy is if the United Nations takes a decision on Chapter 7, it is obligatory on all signatories to cooperate -- but that is not to the extent of using facilities in the country or the military forces of the country," he said.

Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter mandates that members of the world body implement any measure immediately as part of international law.

Pressed about whether the Saudi bases could be used, he gave a definite "No."

The Saudi foreign minister said Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's fate should be decided by the Iraqi people and warned against a long-term U.S. military presence in Iraq -- an idea floated by some administration officials in the past few weeks. There have been suggestions that Army Gen. Tommy Franks, who led the war in Afghanistan, or one of his subordinates might take on the role held by Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur in Japan, where he oversaw the occupation government from 1945 to 1951 and helped to reform the country's political, social and economic institutions.

"History tells us that whatever change you believe you can bring to the country that you occupy, you can never make a permanent change through occupation by a foreign force in the country," Saud said.

Esther Schrader is a writer for the Los Angeles Times, a Tribune Publishing newspaper.